In-text citations (or parenthetical citations) point your reader to specific entries on the References page.
In-text citation are placed throughout the body of your paper, whenever you quote, paraphrase, or summarize information from a source.
PARENTHETICAL CITATION EXAMPLES One or two authors: (Jones, 1997) (Dunn & Diaz, 2008) Three or more authors - list all authors in first instance then use et al. in subsequent citations: (Phipps, Jones, Soto, & Blake, 2008) (Phipps et al., 2008) Organization as author: first citation (National Institutes of Health [NIH], 2011) subsequent citations (NIH, 2011) No author (for an article): (“Economy Perks Up,” 2011) Always give page number(s) for a quotation: (Spesard, 1998, p. 16) for more examples of in-text citations, see |
Page numbers are necessary if you are using a direct quote, but are also recommended if you paraphrase. You can cite references either within the text, or at the end of a sentence.
In-text citations include:
There are two ways to cite references:
(1) Within the text, with author name as part of a narrative:
Smith and Jones (2004) disputed the Committee’s conclusion that "funding the project was impractical" (p. 10).
(2) At the end of a sentence using author name and page number in parentheses:
Some researchers strongly dispute the Committee’s conclusion (Smith & Jones, 2004, p. 10).
On occasion, you may wish to cite a source within another source you are using. In this case, use the as cited in before the indirect source, and mention the source in the text:
Clark’s study (as cited in Smith & Jones, 1997, p. 10), indicates that…
In this situation, do not cite both articles. Instead, your References page will contain the article by Smith & Jones only. Clark is merely credited in the text of your paper. APA recommends using the original source when possible.